Tutorial: Stunning Eyes – Part 2

Janet Deshotel — May 20, 2016

Welcome back! This is the continuation of Tutorial: Stunning Eyes – Part 1 and will give step-by-step instructions on how you can create stunning eyes in Pigment. In the example below, I will be creating a bear’s eye.

Use the Bucket tool to fill the iris with a medium value of the base color of the eye. In my example, the eye will be brown, so I used a medium brown.

Add the pupil. For a round pupil, use the Radial Gradient tool. You might have to do it a couple times to get it centered in the iris. For other pupil shapes such as cat eyes, you will probably need to use the Pencil tool to draw a custom shape.

Use the Pencil tool at its smallest size to add the darker outer rim of the iris and other darks within the iris. The lines of color in the iris should radiate out from the pupil to the darker outer rim, similar to the spokes of a wheel.

Use the same procedure to add in the lighter colors in the iris.

Use the same procedure to add in some of the neutral colors in the iris.

I added in some orange color too, which will give the brown eye more depth.

Use the Airbrush tool to paint in the captured light within the iris with a lighter color. The captured light will be directly opposite where the direct light source strikes the iris and will create a pool of light. Adjust the opacity of your color so you can see some of the iris texture under your captured light.

Add highlights, which includes the direct light source, ambient light, and reflected lights. The captured light was added earlier, which is cast by the direct light source. In this step, I also started adding color to the sclera.

Use the Airbrush tool to add some blood tones in the sclera. The best way to do this is: a. Select the sclera. b. Adjust your Airbrush tool for reduced opacity and a narrow spray. c. Position your tool outside the sclera and apply your color. By doing this, you can control how much color will be applied to the outer edge of the sclera.

Add blood vessels and richer blood tones above the lower lid. For the blood vessels, I recommend using the Pencil tool on the lowest setting.

Add the cast shadow from the upper lid and in corners of the eye using the Airbrush tool with a reduced opacity and narrow spray. In this step, I also started working on the lower lid. I added black with the Bucket tool and then used the Airbrush tool to add the red highlight.

Finishing the eye includes the upper and lower lid structures and the tear line above the lower lid.

And there you have the finished, beautifully detailed eye using the tools in Pigment. I hope this tutorial has been helpful!

Janet Dickerson-Deshotel has been involved with artistic endeavors for approximately 30 years, which includes traditional art media, graphic arts, and photography. Today she is actively involved in adult coloring using traditional and digital methods. Janet leads the Digi Coloring and Design Facebook group and also hosts an adult coloring group at her local library.